Last weekend we found ourselves with time on our hands in Bradford and decided to pay the National Media Museum a visit after hearing good things about it from various friends and family members.

The National Media Museum offers families seven floors of free galleries to help keep the kids – or in our case the baby! – entertained while providing real points of interest for adults interested in the history of film and television in the UK.

Our visit last weekend started with a trip to the cafe. We were in need of some decent coffee to kick-start our Sunday and thankfully found exactly that in the cafe. The mocha was one of the nicest I’ve had in months and there was a wide range of foodie goodies, including fried breakfast items alongside healthier alternatives.

After feeding our little girl (there’s plenty of space and comfortable seating to make the cafe breastfeeding friendly) we set off upstairs to the first gallery.

Straightaway it was clear that the National Media Museum offers a good combination of education and hands-on experience. We read up on the history of early television before watching some kids having a laugh using a green screen to film a weather forecast and a segment of the evening BBC news.

As we made our way upstairs, the galleries managed to retain our interest, whether through the original sketches on the walls from animations like Tom and Jerry, or the huge accidental baby sensory room that is the Magic Factory floor (filled with mirrors, examples of lighting, colour, reflection and shadows, our baby was transfixed!).

We also enjoyed the retro games lounge, which allowed us to play video games from our childhood like Mario Kart and Sonic the Hedgehog!

It was clear that as a family with young or older kids you could easily spend a whole afternoon here without paying out a single penny. Those watching their wallets should also take note of the free parking on Sundays in the nearby car park!

The National Media Museum also boasts an IMAX cinema showing latest releases. If you do pop along to watch a film, though, make sure you stick around long enough to have a wander around in the galleries upstairs.

Oh, and a final shout out to the gift shop, which sold a range of educational toys and gifts for kids of all ages. We picked up a fantastic baby sensory ball that we’d been looking for for ages for the bargain price of £2.50!

We are very lucky in England to have such amazing museums that are free to access. This museum in Bradford is world famous and rightly so, and deserves to be a magnet for families in Yorkshire looking for a cheap, interesting day out.